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	1st Reading
	Psalm
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Do not conform yourselves to this present age  But be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God.

What is good, and pleasing, and perfect.

You know... in our Catholic tradition we have always believed in the miraculous..

And I certainly do..

And I’ve just seen too many miracles not to know that God, for His own good purpose, intervenes in a powerful way.

In... in our lives.

But, that isn’t God’s usual way of working.

God’s usual way of working in our lives is repentance.

Repentance

You know..

Good Lord, it’s labor day weekend, and I’ll try to be brief.

But I can’t resist a few Greeks words here.

I’ve told you this... and will tell you many times yet, Greek has a wonderful form of the verb.

A continuous imperative

Oh good Lord..

You know what the imperative is...

It’s when you command something... “do this, do that. Don’t do this, don’t do that”

That’s the imperative.

Well in English... we only have one, I think most languages only have one form of the command..

But Greek had wonderful, wonderful variation on that...

You could say in Greek, “do this”
just do it.

   
Then they had a form of “do it, and keep doing it until I tell you to stop.”

Which is a very useful form of the verb of parents, isn’t it?

Well... when the bible tells us to repent.. The form of the verb it uses is “repent, and keep repenting until I tell you to stop”

In otherwise... repentance is a matter of your whole life.

We kind of think of repentance as “Well, I use to do that, I don’t do that anymore, I stopped.”

So repentance is a matter of your whole life.

And it’s an interesting word in Greek, “repent” is (????)

Which... really means... “Have a new understanding”

I’ve... I’ve told you this story at least ten times...how I stopped smoking cigars.

When I was a young man.. I smoked large, stinking cigars.

And I stopped... well, my sister was a wonderful, wonderful Godly woman, died of lung cancer in California, I went out to her funeral.. She was in her mid-40's.

She smoked cigarettes.

And I came back from her funeral, and of course, I didn’t smoke when I was out there..

Out of respect for her and her family.

But I came back and I sat down on my armchair in the rectory, and I picked up a cigar, and a match, and I looked at that cigar... and... I thought... this is idiotic... paying someone... so I can die a hideous death... and make other peoples’ lives miserable.

And I pick the cigar down, and the match down, and never smoked since.

That’s.. maybe 30 years ago now, I just... it just struck me as idiotic to smoke.

And what will-power you must have.

Look at the size of me, I have no will power at all.

It’s just for that moment.. I was privileged to see something just as God sees it.

And that’s what repentance means.

It means to have a new understanding.

To see something with God’s eyes.

And that’s what Jesus says to Peter.

“Get behind me, Satan, you are an obstacle to me. You are thinking, not as God thinks, but as human beings do.”

Repentance is to allow ourselves to, to allow God’s holy spirit, to teach us to think like God.

What a privilege to hear it’s possible for a human being, at least in part, to think as God thinks.

To see as God sees.

In other words, to agree with God.

That’s what repentance is

To agree with God.   

You know the word “confession” there’s another Greek word..

Wish you brought a notebook?

..well, if you stay awake, that’ll be enough for me.

The word “confess” in greek is (???)

And the word in “confess” in Latin is a very literal translation.

It means to “agree”

That’s the agreement box over there.

You go into the confessional you’re going to agree.

Well, what are you agreeing with?

You’re agreeing with God’s judgement.. That you’re a sinner!

Lets look at that... you know...

Sin... actually seems kind of pleasant when we think about it..

I mean, nobody sins here because they’re going to suffer... no.

We sin because, well, at the time, it seems like a perfectly good idea, doesn’t it?

Well, I know adultery is wrong, but at the moment it seemed like a good idea...

Or theft is wrong..

Well at the moment is seemed like a plan..

Then.. Then when we experience the conscious of our sin...we realize that we’ve gotten ourselves in a terrible mess, we go into that box, and we kneel down, and we say “I guess I agree with God now”

But you see, most of us don’t.

People come to me and they say, “Father, I confess the same sin”
                                   
Week after week..

I say, “good, keep confessing it until you hear it.”

You know.. It’s... I don’t wanna hear your confession week after week.

It’s you who needs to hear it..

When I hear... as an individual... what I’m doing really is stupid and wrong.. Then I change my behavior..

You see... behavior follows understanding..

If I know that the bridge is out.. I won’t drive down that road..

That’s a good example...

Why?

If repentance is so simple, then why don’t we repent?

Well, because we’re willful..

Have you ever... well I do this, in traffic... I know... that... that this is gonna be a bad traffic jam.. And it always is. Right at this time of day. This place... and I think, “ugh, but I’ve gotta get somewhere, I gotta get there on time... maybe it’ll be okay today..” and I drive right into the traffic jam.

Because I wanted it to be alright.

Because that’s what I wanted, it’s what I want. It will be easier..

Ah... it’s not easier in the long run... I end up pounding on the steering wheel.. And honking the horn... and being 45 minutes late...

I could have just left a little earlier and taken the detour.

But no, I had to do what I wanted, becuse I wanted it.

Many of you have been parents of two year olds, right?

What is that first word that child learns?

You coach that kid to say, “Momma, Pappa”.

But the first word they learn with real meaning is “No.”

Do you wanna go out? “No”

Do you wanna stay in? “No”

Do you wanna eat? “No”

The first word they learn is “no” because.. It makes them who they are.

We are willful creatures...

Who try to take in our life the very place of God.

You know... you think after they learn the word “no” they’d go onto other words, but really they don’t.

Teenagers are the same way...

“No.”

Think about about that...

When you were a teenager.

Or if you have teenagers.

What do you know?

Ever had a teenager tell you that?

It always amazes me how stupid my father was when I was 16 and how brilliant he was when I was 30.

Understand what I mean?

When I was 16.. I knew.

What do you know about modern age?

What do you know about the world?

Parents end up feeling like complete idiots.

Now it’s worse than ever.

I couldn’t text message.

I mean, I sit there with my hand fist, trying to press little buttons, trying to send a message, and then I give up and just make a phone call.

I cannot for the life of me unravel the mysteries of text messaging, and my godsons look at me like I was some neanderthal.
               
Well.. I’m gonna be a lot smarter than I appear now... when they’re 30 and realize I wasn’t quite that dumb.

But that’s who we are.

We know better.

From the age 2- on we know better...

Meanwhile, our God our Heavenly Father is saying... no you don’t.

I know all, and I have your best in heart.

So repetenence is God’ usual way of working in life.

The process by which we give God permission.

We give the holy spirit permission to change our minds.

That’s what repentance is...

This is what I want, this is what I think, but you know what God...

I’m probably wrong..

Lord, teach me your ways...

The most important prayer of the Christian is “Lord, teach me your ways”

The most common prayer of the Christian is “Give me what I want”

Do you understand the difference?

Repentance is the heart that says to God, “Teach me your ways”

Teach me your ways, Oh Lord..

And I have to admit.. When I pray, it isn’t “teach me your ways” It’s “give me what I want”.

So... do not be conformed to this present age.. But be transformed.

Not by a powerful religious experience, though that’s fine.

Not by a miracle, although those are real.

God intervenes in our life... and He snatches us from certain doom.

But then when He does that... He says “don’t be conformed in this present age, but be transformed in the renewal of your mind.”

Noo.. I think I know what love is.

I think I know what success is.

I think I know what truth is.

And God says... noo you don’t.

Let me teach you what love is.

Let me teach you what truth is.

Let me teach you what success is.

You know, Dr. ( ? ? ?) Was with us yesterday, and he preached so beautifully.

And it never occurred to me...

That in the eyes of the disciples... and in the eyes of the authorties
 that crucified Christ...

Calvary was not a sacrifice

We’re so costumed to talking about the sacrifice of the cross...

For a first century Jew....

That wasn’t a sacrifice, it was an execution .

An martyrdom...   

There was no priest.

There was no temple.

There was no alter.

There were roman soldiers.. Nailing this man Jesus to the cross.

It was an execution..

And maybe a martyrdom.   

But He pointed out what made it a sacrifice was love.

Now in the gospel today, we’re told, take up your cross and follow me.

Take up your cross and follow me.

And we assume that means suffering.

And frequently it does involve suffering.

But what it involves.. Is not simply suffering... it involves powerlessness.

I know, I”ve told you this story, I”ve even put it in the bulletin not too long ago... so forgive me, it’s some ( ? ? ? ) rerun I guess...

But I told you about that time I was saying mass and the fruitflies were dive-bombing the chalice, and I said to the Lord, “Lord, I really believe in this miracle of the Eucharist, and I believe this is no longer blood and wine, but this has become your flesh and blood. But for one moment.. Couldn’t you convince these fruit flies of this great miracle?”

And that little voice that speaks inside....said “Well.. You know when my hands were nailed to the cross on calvary, I could not even lift them to swip the flies from my face.”

I could almost not go on with the mass.

To think the hand of who set the stars of spinning could not lift itself to brush the flies away from it’s face.

Amazing..

That God who was all powerful became powerless.

That’s the cross.

In our life.. We find ourselves to be absoulately powerless... so often.

So very often.

We... I guess that’s why I hate traffic jams.

There’s just nothing I can do about it.

That’s probably why I hate flying.

I”m just sitting there, strapped there, hopping that the pilot has done his job.

That’s why I hate going to the doctor.. Boy, when you fall into the clutches of the ( ? ? ?) You really are powerless!

They poke you and they stick you and they tell you “Well tests, we’re goin got have to do tests”

The worst possible words you could hear is, “you may experience some discomfort.”

What can you do?

You wanna haul off and smack the guy!

But you say “yes, doctor” and you sit there quietly and wince.

Powerlessness.

That’s the cross.

You know... you heard the proverb that growing old is not for the timid.

It just amazes me...

As each year goes by the more things I cannot do..

You know?

Well... unless you take up your cross and follow me, you cannot learn from me.

Remember he says, “you cannot be my dsiple”

and I”ve told you this many times..

That... that a disciple is a student, Jesus, not in this text, but in another version of this story, Jesus says, “You cannot be my disciples, you cannot learn from me, unless you take up your cross and follow me.”

And in this version he says something interesting...

You think that’d mean complete passivity wouldn’t you?

I mean, well, it’s well, you just sit there and take it.

That’s not what Jesus is saying.

He says “the son of man will come with His angles, in His Father’s glory. And then He will replay all according to His conduct.”

What Jesus is saying that that crucifixion entails not only suffering...

But in doing the right thing... even when there is no chance it will succeed.

We do what we must do.

We do what we believe the Lord wants us to do.

Even though it may fail.

It is in our conduct we are crucified as Christians

That when all the world goes chasing after idols... we will do what the Lord has requested.

When all the world says fame and money and power and what is to be sought, the purpose of life..

We say “no, the Kingdom of Heaven is to be sought.”

it isn’t a passive thing..

This idea of powerlessness....

Don’t confuse that with passivity..

We do what is right, even if we don’t think it I can succeed..

Because God is true.

So Jesus went to calvary.. And he said to Peter “Get behind me, Satan, you do not think as God thinks, but as man thinks.”

Well Peter... you know how he ended up.

He ended up crucified.. He ended up learning the real power of the world..

As in powerlessness.

All of the great figures of the ancient world... the Ceasers and Herod and Pilot... all these great men who had so much power...

Their names would be forgotten in history, except they are associated with the name of Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth...

And Peter.. Rome would have ceased to have exist as a city in the middle ages, it fell into a ( ? ? ) swamp of swamp of village of maybe ten, twenty thousand at the most..

But because Peter was buried in that city, where he had been crucified.. People never forgot where Rome was, and what Rome was... so it was these powerless people who were crucified...who have outlived in their power, and in their glory, those who were powerful and glorious of the eyes of the world...

And so it is with us.

That if we learn to value what God values, and we learn tot think what God thinks, and we learn to do what God has us to do..

Then we will shine like the stars...

When the great of this age... are not even a memory.

So let us pray.. That we can take this to heart.. So we can dedicate our life to a life of repentance.. Of everyday, learning more and more....about the love that God has for us.

In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen.1 of 2end of transcript 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.